Youth Sunday. . .

Yesterday was youth Sunday.  Our youth took over the service and did a wonderful job.  We have some very talented young people in our Church.  We are also blessed with some very talented adults to lead them. They sang, read scripture and had some of the parents come up and participate in a melodrama   The parents did not know they were going to be called on so that was very entertaining.  They did a great job though.  Big T does not like to sing in front of people, he is more of a behind the scenes kinda guy.  So he and a couple others were in charge of taking up the offering.  Big T also took pictures.  Sprat, on the other hand, is not so shy.  He read scripture and sang with the Grateful Choir.  They always make me a little teary to hear them sing.  I think the congregation enjoyed the service, I know I did.  I am so proud of those kids, they did such a good job leading the service.

Wonderful day with my Hubby. . .

My dear hubby is home from New Jersey.  He was away on business for a few days.  He took today off so we could spend the morning together while the kids were in school.  I love these days so much.  We had a nice breakfast and then did some running around.   We of course ended up at Lowe's  shopping for flowers that we really did not need.  We found some pretty petunias and another lily that was on clearance, to add to our front flower bed.   As you can see from my cover picture our front flower bed is quite full.  I decided I would like two hanging baskets with the trailing petunias.   So on my shepherd hooks in the front I have two hanging baskets with trailing petunias, purple and pink.   I also could not resist a bright green sweet potato vine.  I love those and I put it in a hanging basket that will hang over the driveway from the back flower bed. I love flowers.
While we were outside playing in the front flower bed we decided we should check on the garden.  I picked four radishes, some spinach, and broccoli.  I  could not resist the radishes, so I tried them.  They were a little spicy but so tender and yummy.  I will try everything else at dinner tonight.  I love playing in the garden and the flower beds.  I enjoy being outside and seeing the things that my husband and I have planted together.   Our fig bush is going to be really big this year because we did not cut it back like we normally do.  I love figs so much and I must thank my Mom for that.   She has a fig bush and we always had fresh figs and fig preserves.  I do not know how to make preserves and we have never had enough figs to make any before but, I think this year we may have a bumper crop.   I will have to post some pictures of our garden and my flower bed once everything gets established, especially the sweet potato vine.

Skunk odor remedies? ? ? ?

On the radio this morning someone called in wanting to know how to get rid of the skunk smell from their dog.   The radio station started taking calls from anyone with a remedy.  This dog had evidently gotten a skunk and then brought the smell in to this ladies house.  So she needed to get the odor off her dog as well as out of the house.  Here are a few things the callers had to say;  of course several recommended the tomato sauce shampoo for the dog,  but some of the things they recommended for the house were interesting.  One person said open a bag of charcoal in every room and with in three days the odor would be gone.  That one I could see working because they use charcoal in foot odor pads.  One lady said put a small dish of white vinegar in every room and that would absorb the odor.  I believe that one would work also.  When we fry bacon or fish the odor is almost unbearable and I set out some vinegar  and within a day the odor is gone.  When you are finished with your dish of vinegar pour it down your sink and it will deodorize your sink also.  One guy recommended feminine hygiene spray for the dog and the house.  He said he had used it when his dog had gotten sprayed by a skunk.  Someone else said to use coffee of course you would want to make sure it was cool before you bathed your dog with it.   They recommended using the coffee and dog shampoo.  You can also set coffee beans around in dishes to help with the smell in the house.  I have seen a few skunks lying around lately so keep an eye on your pets when you let them out or you might be resorting to a coffee bath for your best friend.

Technology deprived kids. . .

My kids would have you believe they are deprived of many things that their friends have and get to do.  They firmly believe they are technology deprived.  My 13 year old believes he should have a lap top, cell phone, and a TV in their room.   My 10 year old would just like a lap top.  They both have access to our computer that is in the den.  Sprat did get a lap top for Christmas this past year and he uses it for school work as well his entertainment.   I still do not believe any child needs a cell phone.  I don't let my kids talk on our home phone why would I give them a phone to carry around with them.  I know I am the mean mommy, I wear that crown proudly.  Sprat is in middle school and I know at some point I will have to break down and get him a cell phone but I am going to try and keep from doing it until he is in high school.  There are some kids that are in the second grade that have cell phones.  Please tell me why a second grader needs a cell phone?  They are either at school, where they have access to a phone if needed or are with their parents or child care provider.  I know most of my kids friends and my friends kids  all have cell phones and have had them for a while.  I still don't see the point.  My kids are not on Facebook either.   I have seen where kids are being bullied on Facebook and by kids texting ugly things to them and about them.   You can say don't give your number out to people you do not know but kids tell other kids everything so inevitably that number will wind up in the wrong hands.   I have seen where young girls that are in high school are posting pictures of themselves drunk or they are talking about how drunk they got over the weekend.  I hate to inform them but, employers look prospective employees up to see if they have a Facebook and to see what they have on their Facebook.  I would also wager a guess that colleges also look at these things too.  They may not advertise that they look, but I know they do, especially if you are applying for scholarships.   This is just my opinion and I know some of you may think I am living in the dark ages.  I grew up with out a cell phone, lap top, and brand new top of the line car and I survived.    This is for another post but, my kids will not be getting brand new cars when they turn 16 either.  They will be lucky if they get to use the truck.

People? ? ? Bullies? ? ?

Why is it that some people feel they can intimidate others into doing what they want them to do?  Have never dealt with an "adult" bully up until this weekend and I had first hand experience with it.   Not a pleasant experience either.   We tell our kids how to handle bullies in school but, I am here to tell you that until you have experienced it you don't really know how to deal with it.  I was dumbfounded by what happened to me and I did not know how to react.  I can tell you this, I felt violated.  I do not like people in my personal space to begin with and certainly not  a man that I do not know.  My GYN does not get that close to me when he is doing an internal exam.  It was all a power trip for this guy and all on the rouse that he was "trying" to apologize for being so rude to begin with.  Most people when they are apologizing take a more humble approach, they don't stand over top of you and pin you in where you cannot move.   His words may have been an apology but his demeanor was a big BULLY!   I think he picked on me because I was the only woman there without her husband, I do not think any of this would have happened had my dear hubby been there.  No self respecting man would be behave in this manner.  And yes this is the same cloven hoofed beast I have mentioned in previous posts.  

Spring Fling. . .

We had Spring Fling  today at Church for the youth.  We had games outside, bingo, bake sale, breakfast, and lunch.  We had a lot of goodies for the bake sale.  I picked up my sister-in-laws blackberry wine cake.    She makes the best cakes, and this one is by far the very best.  We had cupcakes, brownies, pound cakes, cookies, and pies.  We had all the carnival games for the kids to play and win little prizes.
After the fling we went to the ball field.  Big T had a game and so did Sprat.  Hubby took Sprat and I took Big T.  I had missed Big T's game last Saturday because I had to take Sprat to his out of town.  Big T's team is undefeated.  We won today too.  They had a rough game today.  I am so proud of our team, they have improved so much.

Feeling Blessed. . .

Funny things just keep happening to us.  Not funny ha ha, but funny unusual.  Dear hubby and I have been sticking to our budget and we are paying off our car in record speed.  That is the only thing we owe on besides the house and I am so happy about that.  Anytime we get extra money we pay extra on the car.   We are also saving our 3-6 month emergency fund.  That has been a huge deal.  We have never had extra money to truly save before.  We have always saved through the 401K offered through dear hubby's job and that is growing like crazy.
If you have never listened to Dave Ramsey, I highly recommend it.   He has a plan that works.  It is working for us in ways we could never imagine.  I like Dave because he uses scripture to illustrate his plan and shows how the Bible has a plan for money management too.  I like Dave's concept of giving, hubby and I have always given off  the top to our Church and other local charities.  In Dave's budget giving is the first category, because you should give first.   The Bible also says what ever you give, you will receive in return ten fold.  I have seen this just this week.  It is so funny how things happen sometimes.  Think about sharing your wealth with your Church or a local food bank.  They are all in need and you will get back way more than you ever give.  If you are giving try giving a little more and see how your life can change.  Ours has changed in ways that would take me years to post.  We are truly blessed.

Boston Tragedy. . .

I was getting ready to post about all this tragedy yesterday and I was talking with my dear hubby and I decided to wait.  My original post was pointed more toward the whole terrorist Al Queda thing.   My dear hubby brought up some interesting facts that made me re think my post.  We talked about the fact that Monday was April 15th our tax day, it was Patriots Day, and Boston the infamous place of the Boston Tea Party.  Hubby seems to think it may not be foreign terrorists but some crazy American opposed to taxes, Patriots, or government in general.  He recounted all the nuts that have bombed us before that were Americans.  There have been a few.  I guess we should not jump to conclusions just yet.   I hope the FBI and any other government agency investigating has thought of these things.  Sometimes they are too involved in the big picture to think about dates, and locations.  I have not seen anyone mention those connections in the news either.  It is something to think about.  I hope the powers that be will.

Classes winding down. . .

I am almost through my first semester in school after almost twenty years.   I have to finish my term paper on pornography for Ethics and take a big test  in both classes.  I wasn't the oldest in my classes but I was darn close.   I have signed up for one online class over the summer in security concepts.  I am only taking a couple of classes per session because I still want to be here for my kiddos.  I know it will take me longer to finish my degree but, that is ok with me.  I am not in a race to finish and I think I might want to do an internship with the police department before I finish.  I am enjoying the challenge of school and learning something new.  There is a lot that I did not know about computers and now I am a little more comfortable working in different aspects of the software and hardware I use.  When I have to upgrade my computer I think I will be smarter about what I need and don't need.  

Baseball, baseball, baseball. . .

I do like watching my kids play baseball.  I like watching them play all sports, who am I kidding.  I do get excited and if you know me personally  you know what I mean.  I yell and holler and jump up and down.  I yell for every kid on our team.  That is what I like about our club.  Every parent is yelling for every child.  How cool is that, that each child has twenty people yelling their name and cheering them on.   When you come to our games you can never tell which parent belongs to which child because we are all yelling.
 Every child deserves the right to play whatever sport  they desire regardless of their talent level.  Imagine going to sign your child up to play baseball and the person signing them up said, "has your child ever played baseball before?"  If you answer, no.  That person might say oh, well your child will be on the "B" team.  That is what some idiot that has recently joined our booster club is trying to do.  We barely have enough kids to have a team much less an A or B team.   I do not like this A or B team mess.  Each team should be set up equally, so that each team has it's own chance to win or lose.  We have played other clubs before and you could tell that they had A and B teams.  One team rarely if ever won a game and one of the teams was undefeated.
We have a wide range of talent on our team.  We have kids that have been playing ball since t-ball and kids that have never played before.  All of our kids get equal time on the field and one of our parents has a problem with this.  By the way, we are 5-0, and this guy is not happy because we have a kid that has never played ball before and has not learned the finer points of the game.  This child is learning every game and practice and he is so positive and excited about playing.  He has improved every game.  All of the parents except one yells for him and gives him encouragement every time he gets up to the plate.  All of the kids on the team yell and encourage this child because they want him to do well and not to feel bad about himself.  Why is it that this guy is so pig headed and mean?  Yes, he is my cloven hoofed friend from my previous post.  Our club is set up to teach and encourage not to diminish someone else because they have never had the opportunity to try.

Doing taxes. . . Yuck!!!

I really hate doing our taxes, we usually get money back, but I just hate having to sit down and pull everything out to get them done.  I had gotten really good at doing them and could do them in just about 2 hours with no kids around.  Today I had the worst time getting everything loaded and updated.  It took all morning.  I finished just in time to go get the kids at school.  One big check off of my to do list this week.  I sent a quick text to my hubby to let him know I was done and that we were going to get a refund.  He chirped back and said hey, it sounds like time to get a new boat.  I sent back, oh yeah sure, ok.  He decided that meant he had my permission, and in writing to boot.   He has the best since of humor.  I told him good luck getting to the account before me.   He always knows how to make me laugh.  I guess that is why we have been together 20 years.  He knows when I am in need of a good laugh to help my mood.  He knows when I need a just because hug too.  He always knows when I am having one of those days, even  before we have talked.

Attitudes toward Women. . .

I am not an over the top women's liber but I do believe that we contribute more than our part to society and get little if any credit for the hard work that we do.   My husband is not one of those, thank goodness.  I was quite upset the other night sitting at a baseball game when I heard a "man" yell that these boys shouldn't listen to their mothers.  It just so happened that one of our kids was stealing home with everyone yelling run, run and he was tagged out.  We all thought he would make it.  That is when the comment was made.  The "man" also said, "what do they know about baseball anyway."  Well, that flew all over me.  I pride myself on knowing a little something about all the sports that my kids play.  I even went to the Wake Forest Women's Football camp several years in a row so that I could better understand football.  Yes, we had contact too, I learned how to tackle and block.  So you can see how that "man's" comment would really irritate me.  To make it even worse he is one of our parents.  Now, how bad is that, that this nit wit would rag the parents of his own team.  I have thought several times that I would say something to him but, I have not.  I do believe that it would fall of deaf and dumb ears.  I put man in quotes because a real man respects  women, all women.  Since he is on his second marriage I feel sure that may be his whole problem.  He has not learned respect for women and boy does it show.  Just to clarify this rant.  It is the Moms that  see that these boys are fed and ready to go to practice and it is the Moms that sit with them while they do their homework before games and practices.  It is the Moms that take them to practice most of the time and sit watch and cheer them on during practice and games.  It is the Moms that brought these boys into this world and it is a Mom that will cheer, fret over, and defend to the death these children.   Now that I have all of that off of my chest, I feel so much better.

Another Crazy week in baseball. . . .

Another crazy week of baseball under our belts.  What a great week though.  The weather was wonderful this weekend the boys played ball and I got to watch.  Big T's team is still undefeated and I am so proud of all the boys on the team.  Sprat has not had his first game yet.  He has had a few practice games but nothing that counts toward the record.  I did my first turn in the concession stand.  I don't mind concession stand duty, my first job as a teenager was at Wendys.  I guess you could say I am a burger flipper from way back. I do not like the smell though, I came home and stunk like a french fry.  My hair even smelled like french fries.  Oh well, the trials and tribulations of a field Mom.  Of course, I would not have it any other way.  This week is going to be just as crazy.  Both boys have games this week and practice.   According to the weather it is going to gorgeous!!!  Play Ball!!!

The Bird Feeder. . .

We used to keep a bird feeder with seed in our back yard.  It became more of a squirrel feeder and when we ran out of food we stopped filling it up.  It finally fell apart and we tossed it.  When dear hubby and I were out on one of our shopping excursions last week we bought another bird feeder and decided we would try again.  I love having the birds out there.  We have some of the most beautiful birds in the country in our great state.  I like being able to sit or stand in my kitchen and see them flitting about.  Some days I try to see how many I can name.  I took an ornithology (study of birds) class when I was in college and one of the requirements of the class was to learn the genus and species name for our local birds.  I was really good at it back then.  I even went with my professor one Saturday for the Great North Carolina Bird Count.  That is where bird enthusiasts go out in specific areas and count the many types of birds they see and write them down to report to the lead person heading up the count.  We identified 100 different species of birds that Saturday.  
I noticed this morning a squirrel laying over the top of my feeder with it's little head hanging down eating the bird seed.  I buy high quality bird seed for my birds and I do not like the squirrels eating it up.  The birds cannot get to the feeder when Mr. Squirrely is on it either.  This morning I decided I would get rid of the squirrel.  I got the BB gun and proceeded to take aim.  I was a little rusty and it took several shots before I got back in the groove.  The last shot I took I think I hit his hind end.  He jumped and ran and I hope he does not come back.

Career Day. . .

We had career day or career fair at school today.  I went around and looked to see who I wanted to talk to and found the Police department.  The officer that was there was very knowledgeable and very personable.   I think that may be my calling, to help the police department fight computer crime.  I am really excited about the possibilities for the future.  I have a year or two left in school for this program but it is going by quickly.  I am going to take a security class online this summer and I cannot wait.
I used to think the medical field was the area to be in and now I think computer technology is where you need to be.  We do so much on the computer and smartphones someone is going to have to be ready to protect us.  There are also many different areas of computer security; you can protect people before the crime or you can investigate after the crime.  I am not sure which area I want to concentrate on because they both interest me.  I guess I have time to test both sides before I make a decision.
To anyone thinking about going back to school, I would encourage it.  I am enjoying my classes and learning so much.  It has been almost 20 years since I graduated College the first time, and it has been 10 years since I have been in the work force full time.  I was really nervous about going back to College but there are about as many older people as younger on campus these days.  If you are thinking about trying something new I encourage you to check out the Community Colleges in your area.

Celebrating >>>>????<<<<>>>><<<>>>><<<>>>

My dear hubby and I are celebrating 20 wonderful years this week.  I am so very lucky to have such a wonderful man to call my; best friend, lover, and soul mate.  I can hardly believe that it has actually been 20 years, it does not seem that long at all.   I wonder some days if when our kids are gone will we have any thing in common.  Then he comes home talking about taking me out on the boat fishing or going to the beach to go fishing.  We both love to fish, I just have not been able to as much since the kids.  Since we have been watching the NCAA tournament we have been remembering our honeymoon.  Hubby laughs at the fact we "had" to get married when we did.  My parents are huge State fans and all of our friends are fans of either State or UNC.  In order to have even my parents at our wedding we "had" to get married on that day because of the various games.  We watched the final game in Florida at a bar and  grill on the inlet.  

Then

Now.

Dave Ramsey. . .continues

I completed the Dave Ramsey class last year and to date we are still credit card FREE!  I am so glad for that.  We are well on our way to paying off the car and we are building our emergency fund.  We still have a way to go but slow and steady will win this race.  I have been using Dave's envelope system now for a year and it does make you think before you whip out that cash for an item.  You feel that money going out of your wallet rather than that swipe of the debit card or credit card.  
With all of the identity theft and stolen credit card numbers, what more reason do you need to use cash.  Even if you just use cash for eating out, you are taking your credit card or debit card out of extra hands and eyes.  The more people that have access to your pertinent information the more likely that it will get taken and used by someone other than you.  Try using cash in one or two areas of your life and that will reduce some of your risk.  In my opinion, eating out is one of the easiest ways to cut back on debit and credit card use.  I feel sure I have posted about this before but it needs to be repeated.  One of  the couples in our class said that their credit card number was stolen while they were on vacation.  They were able to track it to their waiter at one of the restaurants they had visited.  When the police tracked him down he had a notebook with many other credit and debit card numbers written down that he had stolen.  That was my wake up call.  What will your wake up call be?